


I love you, Little Fawn

by clarkjoekent



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Gen, Shikaku is a good dad, canon character death, uh theres a little weed reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27571447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clarkjoekent/pseuds/clarkjoekent
Summary: The four times Shikaku saved Shikamaru and the one time Shikamaru wished he could save his Dad.
Relationships: Nara Shikaku & Nara Shikamaru, Nara Shikaku/Nara Yoshino, Nara Shikamaru/Temari
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	I love you, Little Fawn

**Author's Note:**

> I don't write for a while and then I crank out this sad as fuck fic? You know it babey ;) Anyways. I have the MOST love for Shikaku and Shikamaru's Father/Son relationship and I decided to jump back into it with this small fic.

Shikaku was in shock. His poor kitchen was in a state of disaster and at the epicenter was his son and his two best friends. There was a pot in trash with a burned hole on the bottom, how the kids managed to do that is beyond him. There was something pale and dripping from the ceiling, a window was blown out and the hood of the stove was destroyed. 

“What the fuck happened here?” Shikaku placed his paperwork on the only thing unscathed in the whole room, the kitchen table. 

“We were trying to follow a recipe but the book has some errors.” Shikamaru acted as if it was the book’s fault for the disaster. 

“The book has some errors? Are you sure it’s not you?” Shikaku walked over some broken glass before making sure his son, Naruto, and Choji were okay. After spotting no cuts or burns he lifted all three kids up and walked them out of the hazard zone. 

“Mom is going to kill us.” Shikamaru whispered to Choji as his father returned to the kitchen with a sigh. 

“Go clean up, I’ll take care of your mother.” Shikaku scratched his head and decided to collect the glass from the floor so that was one less thing his wife could get mad at. 

“Kill us!” Shikamaru shouted as his friends ran to the back bathroom to wash whatever they had on them off. 

Yoshino made it home an hour after Shikaku had. He couldn’t fix the window, busted hood, or hide the burned out pot. 

“Did you try to cook for me?” Yoshino snorted, picking up the pot out of the trashcan startling her husband. 

“Yeah, sorry it was a bust.” Shikaku sighed. He took the fall for the kids. 

“You are fixing this tonight, my parents are coming over tomorrow for my birthday and the last thing I want is for them to see your mess.” Yoshino was still laughing, no real bite in her voice. 

“Got it.” Shikaku had called someone to fix the window and the hood. It only took most of the night to get the kitchen back into the proper order. 

“Thanks Dad.” Shikamaru whispered at his exhausted father as he passed his bedroom. The man grumbled back, a smirk ghosting on his face. 

* * *

“Hey I failed the class.” Shikamaru slid his report card over to his father. 

“You what?” Shikaku snatched the paper and glared at the note Iruka placed on the bottom. 

_ “Lazy, unmotivated, too smart for this.”  _

“Mom.” 

“I swear, the grey I am accumulating on my head is your fault.” Shikaku looked at his son. “Fine, I’ll hide this from your mother.”

Shikamaru’s face brightened. Shikaku felt bad for the next hit but he needed his son to pass and become a Genin. Iruka owed the older Nara a favor. 

“However,” Shikaku pointed at his son whose face dropped, “You need to make up all this work by the end of the week.” 

“Dad, that’s a lot of work!” 

“Should’ve done it before then.” Shikaku shrugged. “Your move little fawn.” 

“Fine!” Shikamaru didn’t need much to convince him. 

“Get to it.” Shikaku placed the report card in his desk drawer and locked it, watching his son grumble and walk out of his office. 

* * *

“I can’t do it Dad.” Shikamaru was curled up on his bed. Shikaku had a hard time getting his son out of his room and out into the sunlight. 

It’s been a month since the Sasuke rescue mission and Shikamaru has taken this failure to heart, with the near deaths of three of his teammates. If Gaara and his siblings hadn’t saved them - Shikaku shook his head. He couldn’t bear it. 

“I know, but you can’t give up. Your friends are all healed, they miss you.” Shikaku pulled his son out of his ball and held him. Kiba and Choji knock on their door every day asking to train with Shikamaru. All Yoshino and Shikaku could say was that he was busy. Choji caught on and tried harder but it was no use. 

“I will fail again and people will die.” 

Shikaku could say that that was the shinobi lifestyle.  _ “Deaths of all your friends are inevitable, Shikaku.” _ His own father told him the same thing the day before his own death. 

He chose comforting words instead, “You will fail, but I know you will learn from this. None of your friends will die while you are around.” 

“What if I don’t want to be around anymore.” Shikamaru whispered, almost too quietly for his father to hear. 

Shikaku caught it. “Did I ever tell you about the mission I fucked up on?” 

Shikamaru looked up at his father and shook his head. “I thought you had a perfect record?” 

Shikaku snorted. “Whoever told you I have a spotless record is a fool.” 

“Asuma.” 

“See? A fool.” Shikaku settles back against the wall, his son in his arms. “When I was a brand new Jonin I was put in charge of a mission with a few other Jonin who were pissed to say the least, about me being in charge. This was before Chunin were given the green-light to be the head of missions.” 

“When did that start?” 

“After the Nine Tails attack, we were low on forces and the Third Hokage claimed he had no choice. Like sending lambs to the slaughter.” It wasn’t a secret in the Nara household that Shikaku thought Hiruzen could’ve handled a lot of things better. Should’ve never been Hokage. “Anyways, the mission was set to Suna, a detail job for Rasa - the fourth Kazekage - and we left without any issues. Unfortunately there were lies and deceit throughout the chain of communication and we were ambushed half way there.” 

Shikamaru was now sitting next to his father, no longer crying, instead he was enthralled in the story. Shikaku smiled and continued. 

“We were thrown into a prison cell and one by one picked off and tortured. I was the last one, they thought I had no information and decided to just throw me around. With no chakra and no way of getting out, things were pretty desperate. On the way back from a fun little torture session I spotted a way out. I needed the others to cooperate but they decided to do what they wanted. They were Jonin longer than me, they knew better.” Shikaku rolled his eyes. “It was a disaster. We made it out only thanks to Rasa himself. He had caught wind of a group of Suna missing-nin kidnapping shinobi and he wanted to put an end to it.” 

“You were saved by the Kazekage?” Disbelief was evident on Shikamaru’s face. Shikaku just nodded. 

“Yeah, he was a good guy if you weren’t in Suna. Or in his way.” A flash of Sakumo’s face appeared in Shikaku’s head and he buried it back down. 

“Okay so the Kazekage saved you, it’s not a failure.” 

“No it’s a failure because I was the Jonin Captain. I couldn’t get my team together to listen and for that we suffered two losses. I came home feeling the worst. After seeing them die in front of me for something I could’ve prevented, I was a mess.” 

“How did you get through it?” 

“I decided to take a break.” Shikaku shrugged. 

“A break? I’m taking a break and it doesn’t help.” Shikamaru crossed his arms and looked away. 

“No what you are doing is hiding. I took a break from missions but I hung out with my team. I still trained, I fed the deer, got stoned with Asuma and Kakashi. I was trying to heal. Those two losses were fathers of kids I went to school with. They didn’t blame me, they blamed the situation. You had a mission, going in mostly blind with a band of Genin and no experience and yet you all survived.” 

Shikamaru glanced up at his father. As if by clockwork they heard someone knock on the door. 

“They don’t blame you. They love you and want to make sure you are okay.” Shikaku gently pushes his son towards the edge of the bed. “You owe it to yourself and them to prove that you are stronger than this.” 

A small bark could be heard outside. Shikamaru got off his bed and walked out of his room to open the front door. Shikaku can hear Choji and Kiba’s excited shouting. Shikamaru mumbled something and then shut the door, wandering back into his room. 

“They want me to go to the training field. Kiba’s mom has a bunch of therapy dogs and they need some play time.” Shikamaru stood watching his father. 

“Go have fun.” Shikaku got up and left the bedroom, letting his son get dressed. 

A few minutes later Shikamaru opens his parent’s bedroom door. “Thanks Dad.” 

“Love you, little fawn.” 

“Love you too.” 

* * *

“I miss him.” It was a quiet confession, one Shikaku knew his son held in his heart for a while. 

“I know. Me too.” Shikaku placed the next shogi piece down on the board waiting for his son to continue his train of thought. 

“It’s been months and I can’t get him out of my head.” Shikamaru leans back against the wall pushing the shogi board away from him. “I lost him and now I’m terrified of what’s to come.”

Shikaku sat in silence, weighing his words, not wanting to upset his child. “We all know that Pein is going to do. All we have to do is stick together and fight.” 

“If the Akatsuki get Naruto, it’s over.” 

“We won’t let it happen. Tsunade has him in hiding. She’s the only one who knows where he is.” Shikaku continued playing the game by himself. Shikamaru was staring off in the distance, no signs of him wanting to play. 

“Do you ever regret becoming a shinobi?” Shikamaru asked his father, still watching the sunset. 

“Sometimes. Then I remember that I am the Jonin Commander and have been since before you were born. If I never became the Commander, where would we be?” Shikaku knew it was between him and Danzo. Danzo’s greed was known in the council and he irritated the older Nara. If Danzo got it, he would run the shinobi like ROOT and the Nara’s would have no choice but to leave Konoha. Just to stick it to him, Shikaku asked Hiruzen for the chance to prove himself - to take his father’s spot. A few crocodile tears and a small chance later Shikaku was able to wiggle his way into the position and knock Danzo out of the way. Now Danzo was next in line for Hokage, a spot Shikaku refuses to fill. A certain Copy Ninja would be better. 

“Mm Danzo. Yeah but I don’t hold that power. Maybe I’ll retire early.” 

“Go ahead. You have a home here.” Shikaku finally got Shikamaru to look at him. He was shocked by his father’s acceptance. “However, you told me once that you needed to be there for Naruto when he finally becomes Hokage. You can’t really do that as a retired shinobi.” 

“I can be an ally and an ear.” 

“I know you, someone will say something stupid and you will want to take over. A retired shinobi can’t do the things you do now.” Checkmate. 

Shikamaru turned towards the shogi board and smiled softly. “You’re right. I think I’m just tired.” 

“I know, little fawn. I overheard Inoichi talking about a trip to the hot springs. Maybe you should go, while you still can.” Before Pein attacks and their lives change. Shikaku kept that part quiet. 

“Maybe. I like playing shogi with you though.” Shikamaru knew trips with Ino meant drama. 

“Whatever you want kid.” 

Shikamaru took his pieces and set up a new game, a smile still on his face. 

* * *

“It’s okay son." 

“Dad please. There has to be a way out!” Shikamaru was in tears. His father was going to die and there was nothing he could do.

“I love you, little fawn.” 

All Shikamaru could do is watch the fireball fly though the night sky, aimed right for his father. He heard his father’s dying words and yet he had no comfort. The ball hit and Madara’s laugh rang out.

“Found them!” 

Shikamaru wanted nothing more than to wipe the smile off Madara’s face. He looked at Ino who was crying quietly. Her father. His father. 

He couldn’t save them. 

He let the angry tears fall after he relayed the plan to everyone. After the day was saved by Naruto and the rest of team 7 he sank into the ground and let the sadness roll off him. 

He couldn’t save them. 

“Hey.” Temari caught him behind a tent sobbing. Her gentle arms around his shoulders made him cry harder. After a few minutes he composed himself. 

“Little fawn. That’s what he called me. I miss him.” Shikamaru wiped his face with his sleeve and sighed. 

“That is adorable.” Temari tucked a fly away piece of Shikamaru’s hair behind his ear. 

“He’s with Asuma now probably chain smoking and making fun of me.” Shikamaru let out a laugh. “Old man.” 

Temari helped Shikamaru up. He brushed his knees off and then looked up at the sky. 

“I love you too, Dad.” 


End file.
